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Coffee
- it’s such a small but innocent pleasure. But could it also hold
the key to global change?

Believe
it or not, after oil, coffee is the world’s second largest traded
commodity. In 50 countries, 20 million farming families (60 to 80
million people) depend on coffee for their income. Every day, they
tend the bushes, pick the berries, then depulp, dry and pack them,
so that you can enjoy your daily hit of java.

It
takes 100 beans to make a cup, and a tree yields 4,000 beans a year,
so if you drink two cups of coffee a day you will need 18 coffee
trees devoted solely to you – and it’s five years before a tree
is fully productive.

Behind
the glitz of the trendy coffee houses, however, a terrible tragedy
is unfolding. Since 1998, the world price of coffee has fallen by
50% to the lowest for 30 years, because of surplus production, and
the collapse of the coffee marketing agreement that was in place
until 1989. Growers who were getting $1.20 a pound in 1998 are now
getting less than 50 cents (prices in US$); some earn as little
as 10 cents.

While
the coffee-growers are struggling with terrible poverty, often earning
less than $3 a day, Nestlé’s profits rose to $1 billion in
2001 ($2.7 million a day), which they attribute to "favourable
commodity prices". Starbucks posted a 41% rise in profits in
the first quarter of 2001, and Starbucks chairman, Howard Schultz,
who earned $2.1 million in 2000, bought himself a $200 million stake
in the Seattle SuperSonics basketball team.

The
world’s coffee business is dominated by four large corporations
– Proctor and Gamble (Fulgors), Philip Morris, Sara Lee and Nestlé,
who control 60% of US coffee sales and 40% of the world market.
90% of the world’s coffee – the canned stuff that fills the supermarket
shelves - is ‘technified’: it is grown under the full sun, requiring
the destruction of the forest cover, and because the sun-baked soil
quickly loses its fertility, it requires the constant use of pesticides
and fertilizers.

It gets worse: researchers at the University of Hawaii have developed
a genetically engineered coffee tree, and started a business (Integrated
Coffee Technologies Inc - www.integratedcoffee.com)
to develop it. They have made the berries stop ripening just short
of maturity. Once the whole field is ripe, the berries can be artificially
ripened at the same time by a chemical spray, allowing them to be
harvested mechanically – requiring less labour.

The remaining 10% is grown for specialty consumers who care about
the taste, and it is here that change is happening. Socially and
environmentally conscious coffee drinkers who want their coffee
grown without chemicals, and who want their growers to receive a
decent price, can now buy Fair Trade certified coffee. (TransFair
canada: www.transfair.ca
TransFair USA: www.transfairusa.org)

This guarantees that the coffee is grown by small family farms and
co-operatives in a way that is shade-grown and organic, and that
the co-op receives a minimum $1.26 a pound ($1.41 for certified
organic), plus access to financial and technical support to help
them to avoid the middle-men and loan-sharks (known as ‘coyotes’)
who prey on them. The Fair Trade logo gives you the assurance that
a farm has been certified as fair trade. On Vancouver Island, the
Salt Spring Roasting Company (http://
www.saltspringroasting.com) imports certified Fair Trade coffee,
and there are two importers (selling San Miguel and Ometepe coffee)
who have trustworthy but not certified fair trade relationships
with their growers. (www.levelground.com)

The
Fair Trade coffee movement started in Holland in 1988, and there
are 17 Fair Trade labeling initiatives around the world. In Switzerland,
5% of all retail coffee sold is certified Fair Trade. As John Cavanagh
says, at the Institute for Policy Studies, "Fair trade brings
the benefits of trade into the hands of communities that need it
most. It sets new social and environmental standards for international
companies, and demonstrates that trade can indeed be a vehicle for
sustainable development." Fair trade coffee allows trade to
be a vehicle for justice and love, instead of suffering and exploitation.

This,
therefore, is a direct plea. If you are a coffee drinker, and you
care about the conditions in which your coffee is grown, please
start drinking fair trade coffee. The local sources are listed in
the Directory, inside. If you are involved with a church, school,
business, college, city hall or other organization, please ask that
they change to fair trade coffee. Ask your local coffee shop and
grocery store to start selling it. Starbucks have agreed to sell
Fair Trade beans in the USA, and brew it once a month. It’s a start,
but they are not doing it in Canada. Please ask them to.

There
is far more to be done, but this is a beginning. I am not a coffee
drinker, but I hear that fair trade coffee tastes delicious, so
there’s no sacrifice on taste. There is a huge sacrifice being made
by the growers and their families, however – which we have the power
to change.

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THE
ECO-CORNER

$5/line
(non-profits & low-income free) 1" box ad $35, $2"
box ad $65

*
Still looking for 1 bedroom suite (pref. with yard) by mature
responsible female (UVic employee) and 2 therapy dogs. Excellent
references for both human and dogs. Call Lynn, 383-7532. Long term.
Will do yard work if needed.

*Dallas Road Fresh Air, Car-Free Day - Sunday April 14th.
We need a volunteer coordinator to round up 60 marshals to man the
barricades to "herd" the cars. Jane Victoria King janeking@coastnet.com
380-2014

*
Island Blue reports - Thanks to all for your assistance in our
campaign to restore Free Ads to the Times Colonist Classifieds.
Countless loads of useable goods will now find a new life outside
the landfills, parks, & waterways of our Island, and countless
creatures will live on, their habitat no longer threatened by mounting
piles of trash.

*Executive Director required by Veins of Life Watershed Society,
a high profile local conservation organization with big plans for
the future. Details - Ted Hayes (656-4158) or David Grace 380-9494.
Applications to Box 36057-1153 Esquimalt Rd, Victoria V9A 7J5 or
volws@shaw.ca or fax (250) 383-2084.
Closing January 24, 2002.

BANKS
STOP FINANCING RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION

Do
you despair about the loss of the world’s rainforests? Well, every
time a forest is cleared by a big company (as opposed to a local
farmer), there is usually a bank involved, just as Manulife Financial
backed Texada’s clearcutting on Salt Spring. Well, as the result
of a four-year campaign by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and
Sawit Watch Indonesia, three of Holland’s top banks have announced
that they will no longer finance projects that involve forest destruction,
such as palm oil plantations. One of the banks, ABN AMRO, includes
logging, pulp and paper, mining and oil and gas developments in
its exclusion. It’s great progress, one step at a time.

Talking
With Children About War….
and the creation of peace

a
book of support for adults who wonder what to say when children
ask them questions about war.

If
you work with a non-profit society, how often have you heard the
complaint that the board members are overworked, and (sigh) "If
only we had more volunteers!". But most NGOs are very poor
at organizing their volunteers. How many have a database of their
members skills and interests? Well, fear not - help is at hand.
The Gaia Project has done us an enormous service by publishing
Managing Environmental Volunteer Programs. The result of a collaboration
with 4 local environmental NGOs, the booklet contains strategies
for creating an effective volunteer enrolment program, including
recruiting, interviewing, creating a volunteer-friendly organization,
training, record keeping, conflict resolution, & evaluation.
It also includes templates for interview questions, application
forms, training programs, evaluation, and record keeping. The booklet
is packed full of useful tips, and should be essential reading for
all board members of all NGOs. Don’t complain – delegate! To obtain
a copy, call The Gaia Project 384-1534 gaia@sierraclubbc.org

OIL,
GAS or CLEAN ENERGY?

2001
was the 2nd warmest year on record after 1998, but the
BC Liberals seem unable to comprehend the dangers that the world
faces from global climate change. Soon after they came into office,
they scrapped the province’s climate change business plan. Now they
appear set to expand coal-mining, expand the use of natural gas,
and scrap the offshore moratorium on drilling for oil and gas. There
are two opportunities coming up to register your feelings: a major
rally in Victoria on January 12th, and a chance to speak
to the NEB Hearings process about the proposed Georgia Strait Crossing
(GSX) natural gas pipeline (see Diary). The GSX is to ship gas from
northern BC so that it can be burned in two new yet-to-be-located
cogeneration gas-fired plants, somehow making Vancouver Island "more
self-reliant" in energy. (Huh?). For the low-down on the GSX,
and climate change solutions, see the great GSX site at www.sqwalk.com
and the book Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate
Change by Guy Dauncey (www.earthfuture.com)

Martin
Golder Mediation

Now
offering introductory rates for Dynamic Facilitation to the non-profitsector
for vision building and getting through contentious issues.

If
you visit local stores and cafés, you’ll find a variety of
coffees calling themselves ‘organic’, ‘shade grown’, ‘natural’,
‘fair trade’ or ‘fairly traded’. This can be bewildering, so let’s
see if we can help.

‘Organic’
means the coffee has been grown using organic methods, without pesticides
or chemical fertilizers; the use of the word may or may not mean
that the coffee is certified organic. Salt Spring Roasting Company
offers 10 varieties of certified organic coffee, and 3 varieties
of ‘natural’ coffee, grown in Ethiopia using natural methods which
have not yet been certified as organic. San Miguel fair trade coffee,
imported by Level Ground from two co-operatives in the highlands
of Colombia, is not certified organic, because it is too dangerous
for certifiers to travel in Colombia, but the growers do not generally
use chemicals.

‘Shade grown’ means that the coffee has been grown under
the forest cover, providing habitat for songbirds and other forest
creatures. Some shade-grown coffee is certified as ‘bird-friendly’,
but most is not. San Miguel is grown in 1/3rd full jungle
canopy, 1/3rd small clearings in the forest, and 1/3rd
in the sun.

‘Fair Trade’ means the coffee has been certified by TransFair
Canada or TransFair USA as meeting these standards: (a) the growers
get $1.26 a pound, or 5 cents/lb higher than the market price, whichever
is greater; (b) they are primarily small businesses, family farms
and worked-owned cooperatives which bring significant benefits to
their workers and communities; (c) they are provided with financial
and technical support to help them avoid the loan sharks and ‘coyote’
middlemen; (d) they use organic, shade grown methods, even if not
certified organic; and (e) the finances, practices and policies
of the shippers, as members of the Fair Trade Federation, are open
to the public.

San
Miguel coffee is not certified ‘Fair Trade’, but it meets the fair
trade standards, in that Level Ground pays the $1.26 price, and
the growers cooperatives in the village of San Miguel have voted
that the premium (the extra above the world market price) is spent
on tuition fees for children in the growers’ community. The same
applies to coffee imported from Ometepe in Nicaragua by the Ometepe
Gulf Islands Friendship Association, (sold under the World Community
Coffee, Ometepe and Songbird labels), which is organic, shade-grown,
and fair-traded, but not certified Fair Trade. In general, if a
coffee does not carry the Fair Trade logo, it is probably not fair
traded.

Overall, it is fair to say that while all certified Fair Trade coffee
is also organic and shade-grown, most organic coffee is not fair
traded. The most sustainable coffee is fair trade, organic and shade-grown
- which you’ll get with the six certified fair trade coffees from
Salt Spring Roasting, and the Ometepe coffee. I hope this is not
too confusing. The Directory does not list which brands are in which
stores or cafés; that’s just too complex a task. If you read
the labels, and ask the café where you like your morning
java, you’ll soon find out.

A
VANCOUVER ISLAND SUSTAINABLE COFFEE DIRECTORY

This
is not a complete directory; our apologies to anyone we missed.
Please send new listings by email to guydauncey@earthfuture.com

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